Capital Punishment

Capital punishment is one of the most controversial topics among Americans today. Since every person has there own opinion on this topic, either for or against, the question always raised is "Is it morally right." Murder is horrendous crime and it is usually a brutal crime. To many people, these facts justify the implementation of capital punishment. If someone murders, the state is seen as justified in taking the life of the murderer. The numbers of problems with the death penalty are enormous, ranging from innocence to racism, and these problems will never be resolved unless the death penalty is abolished.

Orwell's A Hanging, has plea to abolish Capital Punishment. He argues how capital punishment is wrong and cruel. He implies "It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man." He goes on saying "I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive. All the organs of his body were quirking - bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing tissues forming - all toiling away in solemn foolery. His nails would still be growing when he stood on the drop, when he was falling through the air with al tenth of a second to live. He and we were a party of men waling together, seeing, hearing, feeling, and understanding the same world; and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone - one mind less, one world less. He observes a criminal being executed. He is unmoved by what he sees, until he notices the condemned man side step to avoid a puddle as he is frog-marched to the gallows. Orwell is struck by the humanity of this act and for the first time fully realizes that it is a living breathing human being put to death.

There is also the issue of Capital Punishment being a limited. But does the death penalty really prevent crime? The death lobby wants you to believe the answer to that question is "yes." But, in fact, it is a resounding "NO." Consider this...the US is the only Western nation that still allows the death penalty, and we also have one of the highest crime rates. During the 1980s, death penalty states averaged an annual rate of 7.5 criminal homicides per 100,000, while abolition states averaged a rate of 7.4 per 100,000. That means murder was actually more common in states that use the death penalty. Also consider that in a nationwide survey of police chiefs and sheriffs, capital punishment was ranked last as a way of reducing violent crime. Only twenty-six percent thought that the death penalty significantly reduces the number of homicides. The theory behind the deterrence doctrine is flawed itself. Murderers do not examine risk/reward charts before they kill